OT: WDFN Black Tuesday-- All local talent fired
So I'm on a work trip to another part of the country and a buddy sends me a text message that WDFN has been taken off the air in favor of national radio from Fox Sports and all the local talent save the update guys (Matt Dery, et al) have been fired.
Now say what you will, but from my travels around the country, WDFN was probably the best local sports radio station I've listened to. The hosts didn't just go for the cheap shot, the access they got to the local coaches and players was top notch, and they were entertaining without going to the douche bag route. Bad host experiments (The Meat Shop, The BT Express) were killed mercilessly, and between Baligean's show and Stoney & Wojo's show (which was a Detroit institution), you could actually learn something.
I'll miss the tournaments (Top 64 snack foods anyone?), Wojo's annoying bits, the constant mocking of Stoney's quotes, they always entertaining "Pick/Prick Three", but most importantly the local flavor they allowed to shine like during the radio-thon for cancer, the Michigan v Michigan St week joke fests, etc.
I moved out of state to Ohio about 6 years ago now, and even up until now, I would come home from work, bring up the internet feed, and occasionally call in (I actually won the WDFN tiger's billboard contest in 2006 during the world series run). I will miss WDFN and hope that Stoney & Wojo and Baligean get new shows someplace else on the Detroit radio dial.
January 21st, 2009 at 7:03 PM ^
...here's some more info on WDFN and the key players:
http://gregghenson.typepad.com/gregg_hensoncom/2009/01/stoney-and-wojos…
January 21st, 2009 at 7:26 PM ^
I didn't realize all the inside baseball that was going on that killed the station until I read the former Bald Guy's blog... realizing that he had a big axe to grind with danziger for how 3G was forced out a couple years ago, but the saddest part of the blog was his analysis that Sean probably won't get another show in Detroit and how Stoney & Wojo won't be back on the air anytime soon due to the contract situation.
BTW-- I'm a card carrying member of the 'vast right wing consipracy', but one of big problems I see in the country (as reflected in the current set of scandals from this radio one to the financial sector), has been the "corporitization" of America... even at UM when I was there in the 90's-early 2000, every department was pushing the "get a job with a big corporation" instead of encouraging small business startup and such-- now that the corporate money has dried up for a lot of the engineering school, they've started this "entreprenuership" (sp?) program where CoE students will have to do projects in starting their own business and such.
January 21st, 2009 at 7:35 PM ^
Henson was NOT forced out at WDFN. He left when his contract was up in late October of 2002 to take over as Program Director at WXYT. A couple of years later, he was forced out of 97.1 by former GM Rich Homberg that later led to a lawsuit and subsequent out of court monetary settlement between Henson and the station.
January 21st, 2009 at 7:27 PM ^
Stoney and Wojo will be sorely missed..
January 21st, 2009 at 7:27 PM ^
Henson is a noted liar and a petty asshole.
January 21st, 2009 at 7:36 PM ^
Care to elaborate?
January 21st, 2009 at 7:36 PM ^
I wasn't a huge fan of Henson when he was on the air, and he did stretch the truth in a lot of ways regarding his departure from DFN, but separate the man from the message when reading his posts on the demise of DFN. I think the truth probably lies just on the border of his descriptions.
January 21st, 2009 at 7:30 PM ^
Not only were the hosts great, but I found that the callers were predominantly more intelligent and funnier, than the ones that called in down the dial.
January 21st, 2009 at 7:39 PM ^
WDFN will not survive a national feed since it has already indicated it desires local sports commentary.
I live in Virginia (surprise!) and like Mike & Mike in the morning and the Herd in the afternoon but WDFN is going with Fox who I will not listen too. Romey is a joke and everyone else at Fox has not been able to make it at ESPN.
The best radio personality in Detroit is Doug Karsch on 97.1. I have met him and talked with him and he is the salt of the earth.
This change is all about the economy and I will miss Stoney & Wojo. WDFN needs to recognize that some local broadcasting will be necessary for survival.
January 21st, 2009 at 7:45 PM ^
agree with your comment about Rome, but I stopped listening to Mike & Mike and Cowherd about a year ago, when mike & mike resorted / were forced to start just carrying the ESPN national take on every news story and the incessant Notre Dame worship. I found Fox Sports First Shift show with Steve Szaban (sp?) to be a better morning show than Mike & Mike (I like the banter better and the actual sports analysis is more than "whatever Chris Mortensen/Jay Bilas/Kirk Herbstreit/Tim Kurkjian tells me"), but I haven't been able to find a good substitute for Cowherd's show. the Fox station in Dayton OH carries Dan Patrick's show which is a three hour melee of Patrick name dropping and repeating his same point in a different voice inflection. I guess I'll just do work until Limbaugh comes on at noon
January 21st, 2009 at 8:11 PM ^
I know what you mean about ND worship by Mike & Mike but Golic's kid goes to ND
and his next kid is destined for South Bend.
Their banter is entertaining and reminds me of Abbott & Costello so I listen.
The Herd hates M but what the hell he fills time and he told me on 11/16/06 that Bo had passed away. He seemed legitimately stunned.
Clear Channel needs to understand that a national sports feed will not work in Detroit. I have not lived there since 1991 and I know that much. Chris Myers and Romey won't last long term.
January 21st, 2009 at 8:51 PM ^
mike golic = great guy but also one of the lamest.
January 21st, 2009 at 9:06 PM ^
I actually respect Golic. He is pro ND and is supportive of his kids but if you listen to him daily he is a reasonable, objective sports observer. Mike & Mike's show is very informative and entertaining. I listen to it driving to work (about 40 minutes) and often learn something when listening.
January 21st, 2009 at 9:42 PM ^
Golic's blue-collar everyman analysis and Greenberg's middle of the road sensibility gets old fast....like after 5 minutes. Tell me the situation and I can predict how they will react to it with a 95% success rate. Most national sports coverage sucks. A Michael Vick dogfighting saga or a Brett Favre unretirement can totally dominate coverage for a week or more. I was given a subscription to the Sporting News last year and I just let it lapse. Their Michigan coverage consisted of about a total of one paragraph for the entire season (with the exception of a three page article about Boren that was very sympathetic to his "plight", and allowed him to state his case in great detail). Now blogs are the best source for sports coverage of your team. I rarely go to ESPN.com or the Freep anymore (except to make incendiary Sparty comments in the forums and then leave).
January 21st, 2009 at 9:13 PM ^
As someone who works in the radio world, WDFN was simply owned by the wrong company. Clearchannel canned 7% of their entire staff yesterday nationwide, and WDFN had pretty bad ratings. In today's economy, if you have bad ratings and they can't sell ads, the station is gonna get toasted.
January 21st, 2009 at 9:21 PM ^
it was all about ratings, sales and business.
Just like all the bullshit going on on Wall Street.
Sean, Stoney & Wojo keep your heads up and move forward.
January 21st, 2009 at 9:56 PM ^
If anyone has Sirius/XM radio, check out Scotty Ferrall weeknights at 7. He is pretty crazy, not much on recruiting, but its a fun national type call-in show. I will warn you though, he sounds a little like Barwis.
January 22nd, 2009 at 1:44 AM ^
Stoney and Wojo were great, and so was Baligian...they will be missed. The rest of the station was brutal. I can't stand to listen to Rome. I couldn't take the 5 minutes I heard of the Dan Patrick show today.
I can hardly stand to listen to XYT anymore because the callers are clueless and the hosts are either severely uninformed (Fithian, Reiger) too into their own "personality" (Valenti) or just severely mediocre (Karsh, Foster, Anderson, Caputo).
as much as this is a bad word around here, I will forever miss Parker and the Man. I loved that radio show.
poor Baligian...he deserves a show...he's great.
January 22nd, 2009 at 6:55 AM ^
in today's Freep from Jamie Samuelson
January 22nd, 2009 at 8:35 AM ^
I also heard, from another station owned by Clear (not a sports station), that they fired about 7% of their staff, mostly from sports stations that they own. Had to be a "bottom-line" decision.
It was also said that Clear decided to do it on Tuesday because of the inaugeration dominating the news, so it would go largely unnoticed by the media.
January 22nd, 2009 at 9:16 AM ^
Your correct. Clear Channel is reducing their cost and has cut staff in every market.
January 22nd, 2009 at 9:55 AM ^
Stoney & Wojo were the radio version of Mitch Albom: hugely overrated and annoying as hell. Every damn time I passed through that station they were yammering about meat or movies or hot babes, not sports. I did like Sean Beligian, though. In the first video of a year ago showing Barwis expounding on his S&C program you can see Wojo hovering in the background, stuffing his face with the free food. Par for the course there.
I don't have much use for most of WXYT's crew, with the exception of Doug Karsch and Dennis Fithian. I first started listening to Karsch over 14 years ago on the local AA station, WTKA, and the guy's got great radio talent and he brings much more to the table than the bombast of guys like Cowturd and Rome and the morons on Fox. He knows his stuff in a way that Stone and Wojodumbass never will, especially when it comes to UM sports. Fithian also started out on WTKA, and is sort of an everyman, blue-collar kind of guy. Don't be fooled by this persona; he's no dummy when it comes to sports, and he's as far away from the egomaniac radio asswipe as you can get. Speaking of which, I've never listened to a guy more insufferably in love with himself than Dan Patrick; I'm surprised he can fit his head in the studio each morning.
January 22nd, 2009 at 9:55 AM ^
I always liked WDFN, and felt they provided solid local coverage while still touching on the major national headlines. I've lived in both Boston and New York, two markets that purportedly have "great" radio presences, and I would hold up WDFN as a far better station than anything offered by WEEI or WFAN. That said, I figured the time was coming sooner rather than later, and it will be tough to listen to the ESPN feeds when I visit Detroit. Hopefully some of the better names, like Stoney and Wojo, can find work somewhere else. Reminds me somewhat of what happened with Deminski and Doyle some time ago - their show was cut, but their non-compete clause didn't let them get a foothold back in the area. Let's hope some of the WDFN talent can stick it out.
January 22nd, 2009 at 11:01 AM ^
During the RR/WVU flap, Cowherd did a ten minute rant about the Psycho-exes at WVU and how every coach in America is watching how badly WVU was treating someone for leaving.
He also has been complimentary of Beilein on the show.
I agree with most of you the he is a major tool, though.
It's just that sometimes he can be an entertaining one.